Review: The Atmosphere of Heaven by Mike Jay

WAS there a more exciting time to be in science than as the 18th century melted into the 19th? Every field teemed with possibilities, and people could excel in them all - from chemistry, geology, medicine and engineering to politics and poetry.

Mike Jay's story focuses on Thomas Beddoes at the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol, England, and his hopes that newly revealed gases, including nitrous oxide, could usher in revolutions.